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WHAT IS AIRFOILING?

Imagine yourself zooming down a mountain face; you are Silver Surfer surfing the sky, that is you airfoiling; Airfoiling is the new sport Foil Flyer has created that uses gravity and aerodynamics to allow its participants to do wild and wonderful things with their body as they zoom down a slope. Airfoiling is you suspended like a pendulum under a cable you are riding down. At your feet is a wing, which you will refer to as your airfoil, and riding one will make you an airfoiler. You will use your body movements to harness the forces of aerodynamics to control your axes of yaw, roll and pitch to chart a wild ride to the base of the mountain you are airfoiling down.

THE SPORT OF AIRFOILING

You are an airfoiler. You control your airfoil’s axis of roll by leaning from one side to the other to change the airfoil’s center of gravity. This is made possible by the fact that the carriage rolling down the cable can roll around the cable in addition to just rolling down it.

You control your airfoil’s axis of yaw by swinging your hips to change your airfoil’s center of gravity; you can also do this by changing the placement of your feet on your airfoil if you want more of a surfing like experience by going without foot bindings versus more of a snowboarding feel by having your feet secured to your airfoil with bindings. You use your legs to change the angle of your airfoil to the wind to create lift or downforce, which gives you control of your axis of pitch.

THE AIRFOIL EFFECT

What is the airfoil effect? This eagle is exploiting it beautifully. The eagle is utilizing what is known as ground effect. You’re a passenger on a plane and you are about to land, but just when you think the plane is going to touchdown your decent flattens and your landing is extended, that is ground effect, which is that there is more lift for a wing when it is close to the ground. While you are whooshing down a mountain face on your airfoil you are mostly hugging the ground to use ground effect to express yourself athletically in mind and body in unbelievable ways that will cause you to never want to stop airfoiling. One of the greatest dangers of flight is the possibility of stalling, which is the loss of aerodynamic lift, and in an airplane means crashing into the ground. But because an airfoiler is secured to a zip line one stalling their airfoil will never cause the airfoiler to crash to earth. In fact, depending on the skill of the airfoiler, stalling an airfoil will allow an airfoiler to do some mind blowing, thrilling stunts for their enjoyment.